Capitalism, Sarah Palin-Style
Naomi Klein in the August 2009 issue
Excerpted from the August issue of The Progressive magazine
What if the bailout actually works, what if the financial sector is saved and the economy returns to the course it was on before the crisis struck? Is that what we want? And what would that world look like? The answer is that it would look like Sarah Palin. Hear me out, this is not a joke.
Palin was the last clear expression of capitalism-as-usual before everything went south. That’s quite helpful because she showed us—in that plainspoken, down-homey way of hers—the trajectory the U.S. economy was on before its current meltdown. The core of her message was this: Those environmentalists, those liberals, those do-gooders are all wrong. You don’t have to change anything. You don’t have to rethink anything. Keep driving your gas-guzzling car, keep going to Wal-Mart and shop all you want. The reason for that is a magical place called Alaska. Just come up here and take all you want. “Americans,” she said at the Republican National Convention, “we need to produce more of our own oil and gas. Take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska, we’ve got lots of both.”
And the crowd at the convention responded by chanting and chanting: “Drill, baby, drill.”
Watching that scene on television, with that weird creepy mixture of sex and oil and jingoism, I remember thinking: “Wow, the RNC has turned into a rally in favor of screwing Planet Earth.” Literally.
But what Palin was saying is what is built into the very DNA of capitalism: the idea that the world has no limits. She was saying that there is no such thing as consequences, or real-world deficits. Because there will always be another frontier, another Alaska, another bubble. Just move on and discover it. Tomorrow will never come.
This is the most comforting and dangerous lie that there is.
… Capitalism can survive this crisis. But the world can’t survive another capitalist comeback.
Naomi Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. This article was adapted from her speech on May 2 at The Progressive's 100th anniversary conference.
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Comments
It's called Fascism folks and has nothing to do with Communism , nor Democrats or Republicans .
Klein's ultimate vision when carried out will be controlled by the Corporations -- same as it ever was .
It is the Ultimate Monopoly Capitalism - as is China as
was the Soviet Union .
Don't they teach you guys to think at these Major Universities anymore ?
That was , for me at least , a Rhetorical question .
I believe that some of the more successful progressives in history have recognized this and they reconciled to Capitalism but tried to combat Monopoly Capitalism .
I would cite Teddy Roosevelt and FDR in this class .
Now that today's Progressives seem to embrace Socialism -- I would say that you are being fooled ,the same as the conservatives are --- what is going down , whether with Clinton / Bush / Obama , is
Fascism .
That is why those Fasci ( bundle of sticks bound around an axe ) suddenly appeared in the House Chamber , either side of the Podium , post WW2 -- they were not there before , not in the House Chamber anyway . Symbolic ?
In Ancient Rome ,the Axe part was always excluded from entering the city out of respect for the power of the citizenry over the State .
An Axeless version appears near the Presidents office but that was placed there back in the days of the Republic , I guess .
Here is a correct summary from Wikipedia---
Traditionally, fasces carried within the Pomerium—the limits of the sacred inner city of Rome—had their axe blades removed. This signified that under normal political circumstances, the imperium-bearing magistrates did not have the judicial power of life and death; within the city, that power rested with the people through the assemblies. However, during times of emergencies when the Roman Republic declared a dictatorship (dictatura), lictors attending to the dictator kept the axe-blades even inside the Pomerium—a sign that the dictator had the ultimate power in his own hands. But in 48 BC, guards holding bladed fasces guided Vatia Isauricus to the tribunal of Marcus Caelius, and Vatia Isauricus used one to destroy Caelius's magisterial chair(sella curulis).
For a photo --
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/HouseofRepresentative...
Symbols have their language and they are not
applied lightly . And I can not find any pictures of Fasci ,Pre -Post WW2 ,in the Peoples House Chamber .
As to the concept of a "Free Market " , which was an idea from "Classical Liberalism " , adopted by Conservatives -- Great Idea if it could actually exist , which it doesn't because of Moneyed Interest
Manipulations --- I'd say the implementation of this philosophy has destroyed the greatest country that Classical Liberalism ever produced -- tariffs on Imported goods - negotiated of course -- would have saved this Country from unfair slave labor competition . But that was not what was on the Corporate States agenda -- nor that of it's Global
Company Store , "Slave Mart ". Hillary Clinton sitting on it's board .
They have been very good at "working us", where we fight each other with all their false paradigms.
It is all about the "Powers that Are" and these are the Wealthy Elite of the World hiding behind many fronts .
And you might as well face up to the fact that Eugenics has always been a pet favorite of this group , as is population control .
And false flag terrorism has been in the Play Book since the dawn of civilization .
All of what I am saying , you could prove to yourself
-- but you would have to read the books that they write -- and these are quite boring , usually .
For now -- we all all lost until you do .
True , Lenin described Fascism as "Capitalism in Decay" , and he was right -- but take a look at who paid his fare back to Russia , a Big Fat Decaying Capitalist of that Monopoly leaning sort .